Does size matter when it comes to the sound of an acoustic guitar? Of course, it does. But does a guitar’s size tell you what it will sound like? That’s what we wanted to find out.
What Factors Impact the Sound?
Recently, we’ve compared many facets of acoustic guitars. First, we made some fascinating discoveries about the sonic impact of swapping nuts and bridge pins in our article, 3 Ways to Make Your Acoustic Guitar Sound Better. Then, we compared how much price matters in the sound of a guitar in How Much Does Price Matter for Acoustic Guitars? There are a multitude of factors that determine the sound of a guitar — everything from the woods used in the body (top, back, and sides) to the strings, the shape, the bracing, etc.
This time we decided to explore how much impact the actual body size makes in the sound. Do small guitars always sound small, and do jumbos always sound big?
Choosing the Guitars
Don plays the Gibson SJ-200 jumbo guitar.
Sweetwater carries hundreds of guitar models (at last count, there were 941 if you count just six-string acoustic guitars), so deciding which handful to audition was quite a challenge. Ultimately, we ended up with three general body sizes (small, medium, large) from 11 different makers, with prices ranging from $399 to $5999. For this listening session, we didn’t sort by price, shape, wood, cutaway, or any other criteria. We focused, instead, on listening to a wide assortment of sizes, from minis to jumbos.
What to Listen For
It was enlightening to play and hear this huge assortment of guitars — $35,000 worth!
Here are the guitars with sound samples of each. Here are some aspects to consider as you listen to these guitars:
Volume — Can you hear which ones really project, while others are noticeably softer?
Tone — Is the overall sound pleasing to your ear?
Presence — Does the midrange really speak? Is it complimentary to the low end and the top end?
Brilliance — Does the sound sparkle? Will it cut through an ensemble or a busy track?
Balance — Are the notes balanced from the lowest string to the highest?
Intonation — Frequently a hallmark of more expensive instruments, how is the intonation of the notes all the way up the neck?
Warmth — Does the low end really wrap around you like a warm embrace?
The Guitars
Don Carr (striped by green lasers) playing the Martin D Jr-10 in Sweetwater Studio A as a host of guitars await their turns.
Technical Details
For these recordings, we used a spaced pair of Neumann KM 184 small-diaphragm condensers positioned with my Triad-Orbit Orbit 2/O2 Dual-Arm Orbital Boom into my Millennia HV-3R preamp, recorded into Pro Tools through Avid MTRX interfaces at 24-bit/96kHz. All the guitars were positioned the same distance and angle from the mics, as confirmed by lasers that indicated 1) the angle of the neck to the mics and 2) where the neck meets the body of the guitar. No change was made to the gain or the setup once they were established, so any differences you hear among the guitars are due to the individual guitars.
The stereo Neumann KM 184 mics set up on a Triad-Orbit 2/O2 dual-arm orbital boom stand for recording these samples, with green lasers indicating the preferred angle of the neck and position of the body.
Notes from Don Carr
When I’m doing a direct comparison, my goal is to represent each guitar equally. This process starts with the creation of the musical snippet. It’s important to show a wide range of sounds in a short segment: loud, soft, single notes, chords, arpeggios, low register, high register, etc. To me, that shows the guitar’s complete range in the most typical uses without favoring any single instrument. It also has to be something you don’t mind listening to over and over — like 20 times!
The equality concept extends to the performances as well. Not only is it important to play each snippet as much like the others as possible, but it’s also imperative to keep your position consistent in front of the mics as you play and from guitar to guitar. Tilting the body forward or angling the neck back a half inch can alter what the mics “hear.” Lynn Fuston’s lasers help keep me in check on that one!
As for the technical stuff, it’s pretty straightforward. All these guitars were pulled straight from our sizeable inventory. We used stock strings on every guitar, and I played with a Dunlop Ultex 1.0mm pick.
